STEINBERG: There are a few ways to make a crossword puzzle, including the good, old-fashioned graph-paper-and-pencil method, but there are several excellent software programs that make designing and filling grids easier.
If you’re on a Mac like me, I highly recommend CrossFire, which has a nice grid-filling environment and, at $50, it won’t break your budget. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as the Windows-only Crossword Compiler, though. For example, Crossword Compiler has much more user-friendly environments for searching and editing word lists.
#DUSTWIND SAVAGE FULL#
The biggest downside to Crossword Compiler is its price - if you want the full Professional Bundle, it will set you back $169.Ī third, brand-new option is Keiran King’s free, web-based crossword construction program, Phil. Looks very cool, although I’ll confess I haven’t played around with it much. LAST: Right! This is where we’re trying to set up our next pair of constructors - the ones who will complete the filling of the puzzle - for success. There are way fewer three-letter words than four-letter words, which means our colleagues won’t have a great choice of fill, so let’s go with one of our other themers. STEINBERG: Before we do that, though, let’s back up a little. One longstanding rule is that grids must be rotationally symmetric, which means that they look the same if you turn them upside-down (other kinds of symmetry exist, too, but that’s a topic for an advanced grid-design column!). Maintaining rotational symmetry can be a pain, but fortunately, CrossFire takes care of that for you. All you do to add a symmetrical pair of blocks is press the period key in one of the two squares (or in the exact center, if we’re being precise). #Puzzle maker software#Īnd the software places the numbers in the grid for you, which is really convenient. LAST: Yup! And those symmetry rules mean theme entries must be arranged symmetrically. So once we lock in MACBOOK AIR, we have to stick a theme entry with the same number of letters in the opposite, lower-right slot. CALL NUMBER is our only other 10-letter option, so in it goes. Mondays are generally closed off (note all the black squares around the edges), which tends to lead to smoother fill. On the other hand, Saturdays are wide open, which leads to more zing in terms of longer entries, but also more trade-offs in smoothness when those long entries have to yield good shorter fill.
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